Number plate sells for record £233,000

Some people have more money than sense, it seems...

An anonymous London-based businesswoman has fought off fierce competition to buy the licence plate KR15 HNA for £233,000, making it the most expensive standard number plate ever to be sold in the UK.

Cars with the '15' combination went on sale in March, freeing up new combinations for personal plates at the DVLA's three-day auction in Chesterfield.

Shortly before KR15 HNA went under the hammer, KR15 HAN sold for £98,500. And also sold at the auction, which attracted a record number of bidders, were 458 S, for £70,000, 993 S for £26,000 and TR15 TAN for £25,000.

"We had high hopes for KR15 HAN and KR15 HNA after a lot of interest being registered beforehand," says Matthew Dainton of DVLA Personalised Registrations.

"Both of these current style registrations contributed to an enthralling atmosphere in the auction hall, and it's fantastic to see the prices they have achieved."

The DVLA's previous record for a current-style personalised registration was set in April 2006, when MR51 NGH sold for £100,000.

However, the most expensive personalised registration ever auctioned in the UK was 25 O, which sold for £518,000 last November to John Collins, who runs Ferrari dealership Talacrest. He's since said he believes that it will someday become the UK's first £1 million number plate.

However, potentially dwarfing this figure, businessman Afzal Kahn reportedly turned down an astonishing £6 million for the private registration plate F1 two years ago.

The DVLA says it's raised more than £2 billion through the sale of personalised number plates since they first went on sale in 1989. It has a large number of plates for sale online and holds auctions several times a year. Plates can cost as little as a couple of hundred pounds - although, be warned, you won't get anything immediately recognisable for that. It's also possible to buy personalised number plates second hand through brokers.

They can make a reasonable investment, although generally only for experts who know which combinations are likely to grow in value.